José Sousa-Santos is an Associate Professor of Practice (Adjunct) with the Macmillan Brown Pacific Studies Centre at the University of Canterbury. He specialises in security and defence issues in the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asian regions including transnational crime, non-state security actors, state-condoned illicit disruptors, and irregular warfare.

He is also a research scholar with  Massey University and a senior fellow with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In 2021 Sousa-Santos was appointed to the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime panel of experts and consults with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.

He has previously held positions as Senior Lecturer and Senior Fellow with the Australian Pacific Security College at the Australian National University where he focussed on transnational crime and regional security; served as a senior subject matter expert and member of the educational cadre on the transnational crime and terrorism nexus in Asia-Pacific with the United States Indo-Pacific Command / Special Operations Command Pacific; and as a Visiting Fellow with the Australian National University Cyber Institute.

His work has appeared in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Policy Forum, East Asia Forum, Development Bulletin amongst others, as well as multiple book chapters and commissioned policy research for the Lowy Institute for International Affairs and the United States Institute for Peace. Previously Sousa-Santos was the lead analyst on non-state security actors and spoilers with the United Nations Joint Mission Analysis Cell (UNMIT) in Timor-Leste; advisor to the Timorese Government on crisis management; and served with the Australian Defence Force.

In 2004 he established Uma Juventude, an NGO focussed on conflict prevention and resolution in Timor-Leste. He has been nominated for the United Nations Sergio Vieira de Mello Human Rights Award for achievements in the area of conflict mediation and dispute resolution during the Timor-Leste 2006 crisis and received numerous commendations from the United Nations Police for investigative work on transnational crime (human and drug trafficking).